Old Carter 13 Year Kentucky Bourbon Single Barrel #81 (2020 Release)

They didn’t know which batch but fantastic as always

Rating: 21/23 N: Wood, corn, sourdough. It's super full. A light caramel like in Buffalo Trace gradually comes out, along with a bit of spices (clove, cinnamon). I think there's a bit of orange to that caramel giving it much of its character. I get a hint of the funky smell that's in Del Maguey Arroqueño (though only a fraction as much smoke). A bit of savoriness that morphs into leather. This gradually grows into a very complex and enjoyable nose. P: Bold with lots of wood mixed with big vanilla and some undercooked caramel. Fruits (cherry and orange) pop in and out at times. This isn't a sweet dram, but it isn't totally dry either. Some of that corn shows through still and so does some sourdough bread. This is an enjoyable one to sit and contemplate. It has that fun complexity of Wild Turkey Rare Breed 116.8, but definitely tastes older and more mature, albeit also more subtle. Char comes through, but there's more to the wood than just that. Hints of creosote. The cinnamon sweetness and tannic cloves add a bit more complexity and balance. Water brings out more of the caramel, sweetness, and spices. It's fun and maybe a couple of drops would help, but this really works quite well without any. F: Cinnamon and cloves. Some char. It's much drier now. It's a stately, but slightly austere finish. On it's own, I don't love it, but it goes well with everything else, appropriately wrapping up the experience. - Conclusion - I would put this above Wild Turkey Rare Breed 116.8 (18) and probably above Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve (19) as well. It gets tougher comparing this with Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof (21), but if I had to choose, I'd take the Old Carter. I think that Elijah Craig B520 (22) is better than this though. Considering all of that, I'm going with a 21 for this. I considered a 20 for a bit and briefly toyed with a 22 until I tried the Elijah Craig B520 side by side with this. A 21 it is. Still, I could imagine going up to a 22 if I ever had another tasting. This is a fantastic bourbon and by far my favorite of the Old Carters I've tried. It might make my top 5 of all time and it certainly makes my top 10. Look, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B520 was practically the bargain of the century at $70, so that isn't a great price comparison. Normally, I would pay a lot more for that kind of quality. At $200, I would not feel bad buying a bottle of this. I might even seek it out. Thank you @pkingmartin for sharing this, along with the rest of the Old Carter flight!

Old Carter seems to be one of those premium names now that bottles fly off the shelves and end up in the stratosphere pricing of 300 plus by the secondary market. I was able to secure a few of their single barrel bottles for 200 each, but it wasn’t more than a few days later that all of the bottles had sold out. I’m currently seeing this bottle selling for 325 online, but let’s make some flippers mad and crack it open and find out how it tastes. On the nose, you get milk chocolate covered toasted pecans coated in a thick caramel then some candied orange peel, cherries, freshly baked cinnamon rolls, leather and rich oak, barrel spices with a medium ethanol burn. The taste follows the same notes as the nose with a medium mouthfeel that has a medium ethanol bite before a medium length finish with the same notes as the nose that goes towards almost an over bitter oak note but manages to not overpower the flavors. This is solid bourbon, but not really worth the 200 that these cost. For that much money, I was really expecting some wow flavors like in a Garrison Brothers Cowboy which I drank this side by side to compare. I wish this was a thicker mouthfeel and that those flavors came out bigger and bolder, but overall a tasty drink that I’ll enjoy.